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naveen jain for wired magazine

Ever wonder how much meteor you can buy for roughly $5,000,000? The above photo (plus other rocks in his collection) will give you an indication on just how valuable these collectibles are. I photographed Naveen for the current issue of Wired. Years ago, Naveen was an exec at Mircosoft, and now he runs multiple companies ranging from lunar exploration to working on reducing shortage of food using Synthetic biology. The man is an entrepreneur, innovator, and a pioneer. It was a pleasure spending a short time with him and his meteorite collection.

His collection includes at least one piece from every meteorite to have hit Earth. This ranges from martian pieces (most valuable) to lunar chunks (I got feel and hold a piece of the moon which was pretty cool). He has rocks that have struck cars and one that even went through a house. That rock actually has fragments of wood embedded in it from where it smashed through a wooden joist in the roof of the home it struck. The best part of the whole thing is just how passionate Naveen is about his collection and about space.